Mako
1933 - 2006Pacific Overtures
Marty Pasetta, Hal Prince
Mako, Soon-Tek Oh
Pacific Overtures is a musical written by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman. The show is set in Japan beginning in 1853 and follows the difficult westernization of Japan, told from the point of view of the Japanese. In particular, the story focuses on the lives of two friends caught in the change. The original Broadway production of Pacific Overtures in 1976 was staged in Kabuki style, with men playing women's parts and set changes made in full view of the audience by black-clad stagehands. It opened to mixed reviews and closed after six months, despite being nominated for ten Tony Awards. Set in 1853 Japan, Pacific Overtures follows the Westernization of Japan, mainly through the story of Kayama, a samurai, and Manjiro, a fisherman. The lives of both men are radically changed by the coming of American ships to Japan.
Pacific Overtures
Samurai Jack: The Premiere Movie
Genndy Tartakovsky
Phil LaMarr, Mako
A small boy is sent away from his village. He is to be trained as a samurai warrior and return to fight the evil shapeshifter, Aku, who has wreaked havoc throughout the village. His skills honed, the warrior attempts a return to his home, but winds up in a future time landscape. Here, the locals call the stranger, a sort of Dirty Harry kung fu loner, "Jack" and assist him in his path homeward. This is the original feature length presentation that kicked off the SAMURAI JACK phenomenon on the Cartoon Network.
Samurai Jack: The Premiere Movie
Farewell to Manzanar
John Korty
Yuki Shimoda, Nobu McCarthy
Fact based drama about one of the internment camps used by the American military during World War II to detain some 100,000 Japanese Americans (most of them U.S. born) following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.
Farewell to Manzanar
The Sand Pebbles
Robert Wise
Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough
Engineer Jake Holman arrives aboard the gunboat USS San Pablo, assigned to patrol a tributary of the Yangtze in the middle of exploited and revolution-torn 1926 China. His iconoclasm and cynical nature soon clash with the 'rice-bowl' system which runs the ship and the uneasy symbiosis between Chinese and foreigner on the river. Hostility towards the gunboat's presence reaches a climax when the boat must crash through a river-boom and rescue missionaries upriver at China Light Mission.
The Sand Pebbles
When Hell Was in Session
Paul Krasny
Hal Holbrook, Eva Marie Saint
This film describes Navy Commander Jeremiah Denton's 7-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war. Held in numerous, brutal POW camps, he faced starvation, torture and terrible living conditions brought on by his North Vietnamese captors in an effort to keep communication alive between the prisoners. His wife, Jane, is also arranging a POW wives league in the U.S. in order to popularize their plight.
When Hell Was in Session
中国の鳥人
Takashi Miike
Masahiro Motoki, Renji Ishibashi
Wada, a salary man, is enlisted to venture off to China to investigate a potential Jade mine. After his arrival, Wada encounters a violent, yet sentimental, yakuza, who takes the liberty of joining his adventure through China. Led on their long and disastrous journey to the mine by Shen, the three men come across something even more magical and enticing.
The Bird People in China
Conan Unchained: The Making of 'Conan'
Laurent Bouzereau
John Milius, Oliver Stone
Nearly all the cast and crew are on hand to give stories and memories about the making of the film. Plenty of detail on every aspect of the film from pre-production to opening night is covered.
Conan Unchained: The Making of 'Conan'
The Slanted Screen
Jeff Adachi
Frankie Chin Chi-Leung, Bobby Lee
From silent film star Sessue Hayakawa to Harold and Kumar Go to Whitecastle, the Slanted Screen examines the portrayal Asian men in film and television, and how new filmmakers are now re-defining age-old stereotypes.
The Slanted Screen
Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders
Jeremy Kagan
Khigh Dhiegh, Mako
China, 7th century. On their way to a provincial center Judge Dee and his three wives spend the night at a Taoist monastery. Soon the judge discovers that the secluded place holds a secret - the former abbot died of unnatural causes. After a number of mysterious events and more cases of murder Dee tracks down the true villain.
Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders
Seven Years in Tibet
Jean-Jacques Annaud
Уильям Брэдли "Брэд" Питт, Jamyang Jamtsho Wangchuk
Austrian mountaineer, Heinrich Harrer journeys to the Himalayas without his family to head an expedition in 1939. But when World War II breaks out, the arrogant Harrer falls into Allied forces' hands as a prisoner of war. He escapes with a fellow detainee and makes his way to Llaso, Tibet, where he meets the 14-year-old Dalai Lama, whose friendship ultimately transforms his outlook on life.
Seven Years in Tibet
The Challenge
George McCowan
Darren McGavin, Broderick Crawford
All-out war between the United States and an Asian country is averted when the two sides agree to settle their differences by each choosing a single soldier as champion and having the two men fight to the death on an isolated island.
The Challenge
Conan the Barbarian
John Milius
Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Earl Jones
A film adaptation of the classic sword and sorcery hero, Conan the Barbarian. A horde of rampaging warriors massacre the parents of young Conan and enslave the young child for years on The Wheel of Pain. As the sole survivor of the childhood massacre, Conan is released from slavery and taught the ancient arts of fighting. Transforming himself into a killing machine, Conan travels into the wilderness to seek vengeance on Thulsa Doom, the man responsible for killing his family. In the wilderness, Conan takes up with the thieves Valeria and Subotai. The group comes upon King Osric, who wants the trio of warriors to help rescue his daughter who has joined Doom in the hills.
Conan the Barbarian
Prisoners
William H. Bushnell
Jesse Dizon, Peter Hooten
Melodrama set in South Vietnam in the 1960s. Krueger (Bramhall), a former infantry lieutenant, is imprisoned at Quai Dong, on the South China Sea, for refusing to fight. After a year at hard labor, he is told to use his Vietnamese language skills to question a Viet Cong suspect. The prisoner is drugged and tortured during the interrogation. Krueger eventually stops the torture by pretending that the prisoner has disclosed the location of a supply dump.
Prisoners
